Heart of the Couragous
by MangaLinky
Summary: Yugi and friends live a happy life. But with the coming of a new tournament, their lifestyle is dramatically changed. An old enemy returns, but is he really the enemy, or is there greater evil at work? A serious, funny story containing slight YxY and RxB.
1. Another Day

Another Day

Monday had come again. The sun was shining brightly through the half-closed curtains of Yugi Moto's room.

His bed lay in just the right angle, causing the sun to always wake him. The bright light shone proudly upon his tender face.

His eyes twitched, he inhaled deeply, moaned, turned around, and fell asleep again.

Next to Yugi's bed lay a small table, on which lay an alarm clock, a glass of water and a small, golden-coloured triangle, the Millenium Puzzle.

Deep in this ancient artifact lived an ancient spirit.

Yugi and this spirit were vast friends, they were always there for eachother, to comfort, to help, to prevail.

Yugi's eyes twitched again, slowly he opened them, moaning slightly. He was awake.

He looked around, taking everything in, confirming he was alive.

He blinked for some time, then stretched his arms and legs, waking him up completely. He sat up straight and drank some of the water next to him, then he picked up the puzzle and hung it around his neck.

"Good morning Spirit!" Yugi said gleefully.

Suddenly, the spirit emerged from the puzzle and stood beside him.

He was handsome, like Yugi, but taller, and his voice was deeper, his hair more complex than Yugi's.

"Good morning, Yugi." The spirit replied.

Yugi got out of bed and walked towards the window. He opened the curtains, allowing the sun to shine upon his innocent face with all its might.

He stretched again, and walked towards the door, before opening it, he glanced at his deck, which lay on his desk.

He then opened the door, went down the stairs, and into the bathroom, he locked it, undressed, and got into the shower, the puzzle standing neatly on top of a pile of unused towels.

As Yugi felt the drops of warm water touch his face, he felt a strange happiness in his heart. It was going to be another fun day today.

He turned off the tap, grabbed a towel and put on his uniform.

He equipped the Millenium Item again, and walked down the stairs, into the kitchen, where his grandfather Solomon Moto, was making breakfast.

"Good morning, Yugi!" said Solomon cheerily.

"Hi Grandpa!" replied Yugi, "What's for breakfast?"

"A special treat, seeing as it's Monday, I've got….cereal!" laughed Solomon.

Yugi laughed, as he poured himself some tea.

The Spirit, however, wasn't as happy and gleeful as Yugi and his grandfather, he felt a disturbance, and he knew, deep within, that this wasn't going to be just another day.

"Something's coming." He whispered to himself.


	2. The Shower Adventures

The Shower Adventures

Another Monday morning. The alarm clock went off, 6:30 am.

Ryou jumped out of bed, grabbed his uniform, and walked towards his bathroom.

His room was very big, the walls were white, with blue stripes, and some Duel Monsters posters hung next to the windown through which the sun was shining brilliantly.

Next to his window, lay his desk.

Everything was neatly arranged. Books, magazines, pencils, cards, everything had its place.

Ryou got into the bathroom and locked the door. Before undressing, he looked in the mirror.

It was as clean as ever. He stared at the mirror, penatrating his gaze.

Suddenly, he wasn't looking at himself anymore, his darker half Bakura was now smirking at him.

"Oh, hello Bakura! Had a nice sleep?" asked Ryou

"As nice as can be expected, sleeping inside an ancient artefact!" Bakura replied sarcastically

Like the spirit in Yugi's Millenium Puzzle, Bakura lived in Ryou's Millenium Ring.

Ryou smiled at Bakura through the mirror, then took off his Ring, and undressed.

He stepped into the shower, closed the curtain, and turned on the tap.

It felt good, the warm, or even hot, water gushing out of the tap, being pulled to the floor by gravity, and thus touching Ryou's body as he washed himself.

Bakura was watching from the Ring. He enjoyed watching Ryou having a shower.

Perhaps because he himself can't have wash himself anymore, perhaps because he's spiritually connected to his weaker half, perhaps for entirely different reasons.

But Bakura wasn't thinking of Ryou, his mind was entirely somewhere else.

He too, like the spirit in Yugi's Millenium Puzzle, could sence a great danger drawing near.

He too, felt it wouldn't just be another normal Monday...he felt it too.

"Something's coming." he whispered to himself.


	3. Tournament of the Couragous

Tournament of the Couragous.

Yugi finished his breakfast quickly, he didn't like cereal.

He brushed his teeth, put on some deodorant, grabbed his deck, and walked towards the door.

"Bye Grandpa! I'll be back later, I'm going over to Joey's place after school!"

"Ok, have fun Yugi! Be back in time for dinner!" replied Solomon.

Yugi opened the door, and walked out of the shop.

"Spirit? Are you looking forward to today?" asked Yugi "You sound troubled, is all."

"I...am fine Yugi. It's just that, I don't feel so good, and please, call me Yami again..." replied his other half.

"I didn't know you could be sick, Yami!" laughed Yugi, expecting a reply, which he didn't get.

The yound boy walked slowly towards his school, it wasn't far from his home, and he liked to take his time, walking past the army of houses next to him. Far off, he could hear children having fun, or being excited, probably some young duelists having one last duel before going to school.

The sun was still shining brightly, almost no clouds in sight, Yugi could hear birds singing, making nests in the tall trees standing in the park. Elderly couples were sitting comfortably on park benches, feeding the ducks in the pond. Dogs were running astray, and Yugi could see fellow students walking towards the dogs and petting them.

After a while, Yugi could see Ryou walking to school in his blue uniform. He looked happy, as always. Yugi ran towards him, waving in the process and calling out his name.

"Oh, good morning Yugi! Had a nice weekend?" asked Ryou.

"Yes, you?" asked Yugi in the same cheery tone.

"Yes, well...umm..." hesitated Ryou.

"Huh? Is something wrong? What happened?"

"Well, I'm fine and all, but this morning, Bakura was acting shifty...he was fine all this weekend, but this morning he was...a bit, gloomy...and I'm worried..."

"Really? Yami was also a bit off! He said he was feeling a bit under the weather, but I don't think he's telling the truth..."

The boys talked more about it on the way to school.

Eventually, they met up with Joey, Tristan and Tea, who were also walking together.

"Good morning Yuug!" said Joey.

"Hi guys! Had a nice weekend?" laughed Yugi.

The group of friends talked about their weekends, what they had done, what happened.

Eventually, they went back to talking about Yami and Bakura, and why they sounded so troubled.

"I guess I'll just have to ask him." concluded Yugi.

After a while, they all arrived at their school, they went to their lockers, got out what they needed, and went to their lessons. On the way, Yugi and Ryou saw a poster hanging on the wall.

"TOURNAMENT OF THE COURAGOUS!

The ultimate tournament! The biggest Duel Monsters event up to date! Sponsered by none other than Maximillion J. Pegasus!

The Tournament of the Couragous!

Are you:

13 years or older?

Do you like Duel Monsters?

Do you have what it takes to be the King of Games?

Then enter now!

You can enter this tournament at every games store owned by Industrial Illusions!

For more information, please take a free brochure from one of our stores!"

"A new tournament?" asked Yugi excited. "Yami? Did you see this?"

The spirit had indeed seen it, and he felt the same way as Bakura did when he saw it.

The thing that was bothering them both, the new evil they both felt.

They knew it was this. Standing right in fornt of them.

This tournament was the beginning of a whole heap of trouble.


	4. Test your Skills  Part 1

Test your Skills Part 1

Yugi was psyched. All day long, there wasn't anything he could think of, except for the new tournament. He liked Duel Monsters. It made him happy.

"After school, we've GOT to go to one of those game shops!" he cried.

"Yeah, I'm gonna beat some serious butt, Joey Wheeler style!" said Joey, while jumping in the air.

"Honestly, I don't know HOW you can be so psyched for a card game tournament!" said Tea, her chin up.

The schoolday just wouldn't end, the lessons passed 3 times as slow as normal, and during breaks, all Yugi could talk about was the tournament.

"Yami? Why aren't you happy? You want to participate, right?" asked Yugi when he walked to another classroom.

"Ofcourse Yugi! I'm very happy. We're going to win this!" Yami tried to sound anthusiastic.

"Well, ok then, but why are you so off today? You look worried. If there's anyth-"

"I am fine Yugi! I am sorry if I gave you the wrong impression, but let's talk about this later, you're going to be late for your lessons." apologized Yami.

The schoolbell rang.

Yugi jumped up, grabbed his bag, and ran out of the classroom, he met up with all his friends and they walked towards the shop, talking excitedly about the tournament.

After a while, they could see the shop in the distance.

It was a big square building, and a huge "Relinquished" monster was painted above the automatic door. A huge mass of people stood before the door. Apparently, Yugi and friends weren't the only ones who saw the posters.

"Why are they walking away from the building?" asked Ryou.

"Huh? What are you, hey you're right!" replied Joey.

Yugi walked towards one of the sad-looking boys walking out of the huge building.

"Hey, why are you walking away? Don't you want to join the tournament?" asked Yugi.

"Heh, ofcourse I want to join! I just have to beat this unstoppable duelist first, don't I?!" replied the boy, sounding very fierce for a small boy, he looked 14-ish.

"We have to duel?" asked Joey excited.

"Yeah, and he's really strong!" the boy observed Joey "I wouldn't even bother if I was you! If I had a hard time, YOU wouldn't stand a chance!"

"Ok, now you've done it!" yelled Joey, his fist rose.

"Hey! Stop it! He's not worth it!" cried Tea, holding Joey's hand, as to stop the assault.

Joey looked at Tea and the others, sighed, and dropped his fist, muttering something like "Top rank duelist, huh, finalist in Duelist Kingdom AND Battle City..."

They went to stand in the queue, and after a long wait, they could see the duelist which they would have to defeat to participate in the tournament.

He had long, light-blue hair, and two large pointy hairs about 10 inches long coming out of his headband, he was wearing a green sweater, and a black T-Shirt stuck out of it, he was wearing jeans, and black shoes.

"And now I activate, the heart and soul of my deck!" he yelled at the man he was dueling.

"Say hello to Heart of the Underdog!" yelled the blue-haired duelist. He was wearing two bracelets on his left hand, one green, and the other pink. He had an annoying voice, he seemed to scream out every word. His eyes were a deep purple, his small nose looked rather funny in comparison to his enormous mouth through which the words:

"From now on, every turn I draw a card and it's a monster, I have to show it to you and I can draw a new one, ande one after that and one after that, for each monster I draw!" flowed out.

Ryou ticked a young man on his shoulder, he turned around.

"Who is that duelist in the green sweater?" he asked.

"Huh? Oh that! That's Darvin! He's a very powerful duelist! His deck consists of mostly monsters and the spellcard he just activated, it's a perfect strategy!" replied the young man.

"A strategy with one major flaw." said Yami.

"Can we defeat him, Yami?" asked Yugi, sounding almost scared to hear the answer.

"We can, there's a card in our deck that can defeat this duelist, no matter how strong he is!"

"And now I attack your life point directly with my "Blazing Inpachi" causing you to lose 1850 points! And I believe that means, you lost!" yelled Darvin.

"No! This guy is unbeatable!" the man screamed.

Darvin turned to the crowd.

"Anyone else dare to challenge me? Is anyone else so stupid as to think they can join this tournament that easily?"

Yugi looked at Yami. Yami nodded.

"I will challenge you!" yelled Yugi, to the surprise of the whole crowd, including his friends.

"What are you doing, Yugi? Didn't you just see how Darvin defeated that man with so much ease?" asked Ryou, clearly flabbergasted.

"Come on guys! I have to try at the very least! I really want to win this duel so I can participate in the tournament!"

"Well, alright then Yuug! We believe in you!" said Joey

The rest all agreed. Nodding to his friends, he touched the Millenium Puzzle around his neck with both hands. Suddenly he transformed into Yami again.

"So you're my next challenger?" cried Darvin. "I hope you give me more of a challenge than those other fools!"

"Hear me now Darvin!" yelled Yami "I WILL defeat you! Just you watch" continued Yami in his sexy deep voice.

Yami stepped onto the stage in the middle of the shop, surrounded by hundreds of spectators, all wanting yo see a good duel. This was his only chance, he had to win this duel, or he wouldn't be able to participate in the tournament.

Knowing this, he walked to his designated spot and activated his Duel Disk.

"Let's Duel!" cried Yami and Darvin.

"I begin!" yelled Darvin. "I summon my "Dark Blade" in attack mode (1800/1500). Then I activate my "Pot of Greed", allowing me to draw two more cards!"

This was a good start, Darvin already had a powerful monster on his side of the field, and he just activated a card that could change his chances enormously.

"And I drew this!" he yelled "My heart and soul! My Heart of the Underdog!"

Yami was shocked, Darvin had already drawn his best card in his first turn.

"And I activate it now!" Darvin continued, pushing the card into his Duel Disk. "You know what it does, right? You saw it earlier, when I demolished my last victim!" laughed Darvin.

Yami wasn't happy, Darvin had his favourite card on his side of the field, and a strong monster.

His hand wasn't much help either, all he had was the "Dark Magician", the "Dark Magician Girl" a "Trap Hole", a "Black Luster Ritual" and a "Waboku", these were powerful cards, but he had no monster he could summon. He had to draw the right card, or he would never make it to the tournament. This was it! He placed his hand upon his deck, and drew a card.

"Come on, Heart of the Cards" he whispered.


End file.
